Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) workers have announced that they will strike against the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus Football Club, which is supported by Exor, the same investor as the car maker.
The USB union said that the £99 million fee required to sign the 33-year-old player should have been invested to safeguard the future of Fiat’s future of thousands of people, "rather than enriching only one".
Autocar is awaiting official comment from FCA to confirm whether the strike, which is scheduled to take place from 10pm on Sunday to 6pm on Tuesday at FCA’s Melfi plant in southern Italy, will affect delivery times for the models that are made there, the Punto and Fiat 500X.
At this stage, it isn’t expected to have a major impact because Melfi is just one of seven sites used by FCA and USB only represents a small number of employees there.
However, the union’s response has included some damning statements. It said FCA workers were making "huge economic sacrifices" in the face of cutbacks that have been rolled out under the leadership of FCA boss Sergio Marchionne.
Marchionne has reduced the company’s debt with his aggressive saving tactics, which recently saw him announce a range shake-up to focus on only the most profitable models, the biggest-selling of which are the 500 and Panda.
FCA’s changes shrunk its debt in the first quarter of this year to €1.3 billion (£1.15bn), when operating profit rose by 5% to €1.6bn (£1.4bn).
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